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The company notified the state that, without reduced hours, it stood to lay off up to 49 people initially and another 19 people in three months. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., UTac's owner, unveiled a compromise deal Monday with United Steelworkers Local 6860, which represents most of the 516 people employed at the mine. Last week, Cliffs announced plans to cut production at UTac and Northshore Mining in Silver Bay and Babbitt by a combined 300,000 tons of pellets per month.

ST. PAUL - A bruising, noisy and tight U.S. Senate campaign ends today when voters cast their ballots. But vote counting could stretch late into the night - and into early Wednesday - as pre-election polls show the race a toss-up. The two major candidates pulled in national political heroes to find every last vote they could. Al Franken brought in U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, while ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani campaigned for Sen. Norm Coleman.

Hillary Clinton barnstormed into Duluth Monday for one last really urging northern Minnesota voters to help bolster the Democrats' majority by electing Al Franken to replace Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate. The New York senator, former first lady and one-time presidential hopeful was the headliner at a UMD rally for Franken that also included U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar. "Minnesota, this is it. The balance of the Senate may hang in your hands,'' Clinton told a receptive audience.

ST. PAUL - "Senator" once appeared before Dean Barkley's name and he wants the title back. To return to the U.S. Senate, where he was appointed to a brief term, the Independence Party's Barkley must persuade Minnesotans that nothing in Congress will change if they pick Republican Sen. Norm Coleman or Democrat Al Franken. If people are fed up with Washington, Barkley contends, they should support him because he has served in the Senate, knows how to negotiate and is not afraid to offend entrenched interests. "We know that if we stand together, there's nothing we can't do," Barkley said.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - An experienced leader belongs in the U.S. Senate, not someone needing on-the-job training, Rudy Giuliani told Minnesota Republicans. Sen. Norm Coleman has demonstrated leadership both as a former mayor and in his current position, and he deserves a second Senate term, Giuliani said Thursday as he kicked off two days of campaigning with Coleman. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor praised for his efforts following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said Coleman learned the importance of getting things done when he was St. Paul mayor.

Minnesota's maverick Republican Thursday endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president. Two-term Gov. Arne Carlson said he picked Obama in part because of recent comments by GOP U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann indicating Obama may be anti-American. Carlson, who has endorsed other Democrats over the years, said such comments do not represent Minnesota. "I do not want to be known as the land of strange sentiments," Carlson said.

Graffiti such as "resign or else" threatened Minnesota's two U.S. senators and at least four U.S. House members. "U R A criminal resign or else" was written on the outside of the Coleman garage. "Scum" and "Psalm 2" also were painted on the building. Similar graffiti was painted on homes or nearby structures in six Twin Cities communities late Tuesday or early Wednesday, police said. Police said property of Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann of Stillwater, Keith Ellison of Minneapolis, John Kline of Lakeville and Jim Ramstad of Minnetonka also was vandalized.

A West Lakeland Township man faces burglary and sexual assault charges after he allegedly entered a home and made sexual advances on a sleeping woman. A Hugo man faces a similar, but unrelated, assault charge from the same night. Zachary Paul Navarro, 26, said he doesn't remember entering the home on Overlook Avenue North in West Lakeland Township in the early morning hours of Sept. 27, but that he awoke on a floor.

Dean Barkley, the Independence Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, will meet and greet voters at Dunn Bros. Coffee in Hastings from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17. The event was organized by Craig Carroll of Hastings. Dunn Bros. is located at 919 Vermillion St.

ST. PAUL - Minnesota House Democrats hope for a supermajority from next month's election. Republicans would be thrilled with simple majority control, but would consider it a success just to narrow the margin Democrats hold. Democratic-Farmer-Laborites must defend seats they narrowly won in the 2006 election that handed them control of the state House, and they will try to pick up another five to secure a veto-proof majority.